


Faking It?

by illsanity



Category: Andi Mack (TV), Driscarty
Genre: Andi Mack AU, Driscarty - Freeform, F/M, M/M, fake! crush, fake! dating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-02-04 01:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12759936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illsanity/pseuds/illsanity
Summary: Cyrus opens up to Jonah but not completely, so he has to lie and lying sucks, but it sucks, even more, when your friends get involved in your lies - and Spencer from iCarly was right. One lie slowly turns into another and now you're stuck in a web of lies! Why are fake crushes and real crushes both so much work?





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Au inspired by http://kwannonie.tumblr.com/post/167073524495/fake-crush-au !!

**C** yrus was going to do it. He was going to tell Jonah how he felt – about guys. There was no way that he was ready to exclaim his feelings for Jonah specifically, but he decided he should open up to Jonah (and Andi) to some extent, especially considering what’d just happened between him and Iris. Buffy was extremely happy about this, and she very openly encouraged Cyrus’ idea. That’s why he now sat in Spoon’s, waiting for Jonah to show up with his leg visibly and audibly tapping anxiously against the ground. Jonah finally walked in with a large smile and even his chair scraping against the ground, so loudly that Cyrus felt embarrassed for him, didn’t wipe his smile away. Cyrus didn’t understand how Jonah could be so confident and happy all the time, but perhaps he wasn’t as confident and happy as Cyrus assumed? Maybe people even mistook Cyrus’ eccentric behaviour as utter confidence and happiness, and not everyone could understand how insecure and gloomy Cyrus actually felt? Now, that was a big analysis that Cyrus couldn’t make up at the moment, for he should be talking to Jonah.

“Hey Jonah,” Cyrus greeted, trying to return Jonah’s smile with his own.

“Hey,” Jonah responded with even more pep. You would think that it’d make Cyrus less nervous. 

“I – I have to tell you something important,” Cyrus began, and Jonah’s gaze remained on Cyrus as he nodded – urging him to go on. “This is something that I’m not used to saying out loud – to even thinking of well wording it this way, I haven’t really worded it this way because it’s so confusing, and nobody really tells you that. What I mean to say is that I – I stopped hanging out with Iris so much because I don’t like her like that. I don’t like girls like that, not really. Not the way I like boys or a boy – I don’t like that many boys, or I haven’t, or well, yeah.”

Cyrus felt so much better letting it out; it was like when he’d told Buffy. All of the weight on his shoulders was gone. Still, he wasn’t sure Jonah had understood what he was trying to say, and he’d said more than what he’d wanted to. He knew he couldn’t lie to Jonah – even by omission. ‘Not the way I like a boy’ what was he thinking? Clearly, he wasn’t. Jonah didn’t seem to mind, or well, Cyrus assumed Jonah didn’t mind because Jonah didn’t outright say anything. He, honestly, seemed to be mulling over his words.

“That’s cool, I’m glad you wanted to tell me,” Jonah said with a nod.

“Cool? That’s cool?” Cyrus questioned. That’s it? That was his response? No anger and heavy questioning? No 'dude I think we should spend time apart'? This was going well, too well.

“Yeah, of course! You didn’t think I wasn’t going to be ok with it, did you?” Jonah asked nervously. Nervously! Jonah Beck, nervous!

“No! Well, ok, I worried about it a bit…” Cyrus admitted.

“I guess I don’t seem like I get these things, but I do try to, and I will especially for you,” Jonah said.

“Thanks, Jonah.” Cyrus couldn’t have asked for more.

 

 **A** week had passed since Cyrus had told Jonah about his secret and Jonah hadn’t said anything since then. Just the subtle smiles and pats on the shoulder – Jonah was really an American Boy™, but Cyrus would be lying if he said he didn’t adore it. 

Now the two were sitting in Spoon’s again, alone, and Jonah looked at Cyrus like he was just dying to say something. Jonah had the habit of looking antsy and energetic, but Cyrus knew this was different. 

“So?” Cyrus trailed, giving Jonah the opening he was looking for.

“So, do you have any crushes? You mentioned something like that…”

There it was! Cyrus’ words were coming back to haunt him.

“Yeah, no, no, no! Nothing important. Nada, zilch.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Now he was going to think he didn’t trust him. Great. He couldn’t lie to Jonah. Who could lie to that face?

“It’s well, it’s…” Cyrus trailed helplessly, and Jonah nodded. Jonah seemed to be doing that a lot. Did it make it easier for Cyrus? No. It made him even more anxious and nervous and terrified of saying too much or too little or the wrong thing. That’s what he felt best at: being socially awkward and doing the wrong thing. 

God, did he know any guys other than Jonah? Well, ok, he knew of people, but who was he friends with? Other than Jonah, and he could not say Jonah. 

“Marty.”

“Marty?”

“I have a crush on Marty.” Cyrus nodded enthusiastically, a little too enthusiastically. 

“From Andi’s party? The one who talks to Buffy?” Jonah questioned. Cyrus nodded, and then he realized Jonah probably needed, deserved, a better explanation. 

“Yeah, so you can’t tell anyone! Buffy doesn’t know, and I think she might like him too, so you know, I don’t want to ruin anything between us.” Jonah was the one nodding now. There was so much nodding going on recently, Cyrus was afraid his head would fall off.

“I don’t know Marty that well, tell me about him?” Cyrus knew that Jonah knew that Cyrus wasn’t the type to just go around adoring people. That’s why he couldn’t name any guy from class as his crush because Jonah would know that Cyrus had to like someone for a reason, which got him thinking about why he liked Jonah. Maybe he could work around those reasons? Plus, he did like Marty as a friend. 

“He’s funny, and he’s the only one who can keep Buffy in check, which is doubly hilarious. Plus, behind his whole holier than though act he’s really sweet – he always means well. Maybe, also, that no matter how different we both are he never makes me feel like I don’t belong.  
I normally hang out with him and Buffy, and they’re both so similar, but I never feel left out. He always includes me in their sport slam things, and he has good hair.”

“And good hair is very important,” Jonah noted. 

“That it is.”

“Oh, and I promise. I promise not to tell anyone.”

“Great, so tater tots?” Cyrus was so glad he didn’t question it but for how long?

 **J** onah didn’t tell anyone. He kept that promise, but did he make any promises about not being one of those self-inserting friends? No. Did he promise to try not to make his fake crush obvious? No. That was a friend’s fatal flaw, and Jonah, as much as Cyrus wanted to deny it, was a big beholder of that flaw.

This was very evident from Jonah's constant jabs. He'd known about his fake crush for less than a week, and whenever the three (or even four because Marty and Buffy were both usually around or Marty wasn't) were together Jonah would be jabbing Cyrus in the side, when he thought Marty wasn't looking. Buffy, bless her heart, knew about his real crush and hardly did anything. 

Jonah meant well, of course, but Cyrus didn't think giving him bruises were the best way for Jonah to help.

Cyrus even worried that Marty had started noticing, so one day he grabbed him aside and decided to be honest. 

"Hey Mart," Cyrus trailed, and Marty looked at him expectedly - albeit amused. "I'm sorry about Jonah being all weird, it's just... I have a crush on him, and I told him I like guys but not him, and he asked about crushes, and I mentioned you, so, sorry?" Cyrus rushed out. 

Marty furrowed his eyebrows, and then he laughed. Somehow, he'd understood Cyrus. 

"That's fine." Cyrus had spilled his guts faster than he had to anyone else, and Marty thought it was fine? “It’s not like I wouldn’t be cool with that, Cyrus! There’s no reason for me not to be. You can talk to me about this whenever you want, ok? I don’t mind being part of this to help you out. It’s kind of funny, really, you picking me to be your fake crush when I should be your real crush.”

Cyrus laughed, but if this was what having guy friends was like then Cyrus didn’t think he was really missing out on much. 

“What’re you guys talking about?” Buffy questioned as she jogged up to them. 

“What’re they talking about?” Cyrus questioned, pointing to Jonah and Andi as he noticed Buffy had left them to giggle and laugh amongst themselves.

“Well, I only walked by them, so I can only say I overheard something about cheesecake. But what's this about your crush on Marty?” Buffy responded. 

“You sound kind of jealous,” Marty retorted, and Buffy rolled her eyes in response. 

“You mind explaining this so called crush?” Buffy questioned, ignoring Marty. 

“He has a crush on me, simple.” Marty retorted with a smirk.

“The only way you and crush go in one sentence is when someone is talking about crushing you not crushing on you,” Buffy countered.

“Guys,” Cyrus started, to no avail of course because when those two get started they get started. 

“Oh, really? All I hear is denial, Driscoll.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were in Egypt!”

“Maybe it’s because you’re so obsessed with me you just push me away.”

“Obsessed with you? Oh, please, you wish!”

“Guys!” Cyrus exclaimed, getting fed up with this back and forth. “I told Jonah that I had a crush on Marty because while I was ready to tell him about how I felt in general, I couldn’t tell him how I felt about him.”

“Oh.” Buffy seemed to deflate, and then, “Oh! This is gold.”

“Gold?” Cyrus questioned, “Gold? Why is it that both of you find this so funny?”

“Andi and Jonah are going to tease you worse than Jonah did on his own, and man that boy was ridiculous. I can barely just imagine how much worse it’s going to get now, if Jonah tells her that is.” Marty explained.

“Tease me?” Cyrus questioned. Ah, it was like the universe was torturing him for lying. Jonah had been awful about trying to get Marty and Cyrus alone – especially with all his winks and nudges. 

“They’re going to try to set you two up, if Andi figrues out! Oh, this is great!” Buffy laughed. “I should get some popcorn.”

“Nice to see you’re enjoying this,” Marty retorted, noticing Cyrus’ discomfort. 

“Thoroughly.”


	2. The Middle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marty and Buffy discuss the Cyrus situation, while, of course, avoiding their own situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while in the making, but I couldn't get into the mood of writing this after the Muffy situation happened. I want them to be together so bad, but I also want Buffy to be single forever - basically I only want Marty x Buffy or Buffy with nobody. Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.

**“I’m** worried that Andi isn’t going to take this Cyrus thing well,” Buffy commented as she plopped down beside Marty at lunch. He’d asked her to come sit outside with him for lunch today, and she couldn’t get herself to say no. Her ego wanted to say no, but her brain told her ego to shut up and go sit with the boy, especially after he’d finally started talking to her since their falling out. She was glad he was ok with being friends with her, and that the virtual date hadn’t completely ruined everything for them.

“Why?” Marty questioned after he gulped down a bite of his sandwich. The concern on his face made Buffy’s stomach feel queasy. It was definitely not butterflies right? No. Nope, no way – it was more likely to be cramps or a stomach bug. She was just mistaking the feeling because she was around Marty and she usually talked to Marty when she was already previously feeling queasy and, ok, what were the odds of that? This was why her ego told her to stay away from Marty. Somebody else should not be able to make her feel this way. At least she wasn’t visibly as bad as Andi or Cyrus around Jonah, right?

“Buffy, why would you think Andi wouldn’t be ok with the Cyrus situation?” Marty asked again, poking her shoulder and snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, uhm, it’s just Andi was raised really conservative, and it’s not like she’s ever done or said anything homophobic, but she’s mentioned that nobody in her family is gay, you know? It’s like she was mentioning it because of… because…”

“Internalized homophobia?” Marty murmured and Buffy flicked her gaze from her feet to Marty.

“Yeah.” Buffy breathed out. How did Marty guess that?

“Amber and her might try to look like they hate each other, but have you seen the tension between them? I’d need more than a butter knife to cut that.” Marty’s words were like an electric shock running up Buffy’s arm.

“Why are you staring at me like that, Driscoll?” he questioned with his ever prominent smirking.

“Staring? I’m not staring.”

“Then, what do you call looking at me intensely without blinking?”

“Observing.”

“Observing?”

“Yes, observing, you wise cracker. And since when have you gotten so all knowing, anyway?” Buffy questioned with a huff. Marty laughed and god Buffy could swear she saw a twinkle in his eye.

“I’ve always been this way, Buffy. It’s just taken you a while to notice.” he responded as he started packing his stuff up.

“What’re you doing?” Buffy asked looking up at his while covering her eyes with her hand. It was way too sunny.

“Packing up? I’ve got to meet TJ in the gym.” Marty answered as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

Buffy began to lose all the newfound respect she’d just gained for Marty. It _all_ went trickling down the train in less than a minute. Just. Like. That. “What do you mean you’ve got to meet _TJ_? Oh, and you’re _all knowing_ –ness? That’s gone. Unless, you can somehow explain why you’d willingly put yourself in the same room as _TJ_.”

“Whoa? I thought you were going to talk to him? You know, be civil and all?” Marty retorted and Buffy hated it. He was answering her questions with _more questions_. He was avoiding her questions. Misdirecting them! Did he think she wouldn’t _notice_?

“Answer the question, Marty. Oh, and for your information I _tried_ talking to TJ, but he was a total jerk and clearly doesn’t want me on the team but too bad for him because I don’t care about what _he_ wants.” Marty laughed, once again showing how amused he was by her. Could he ever take her seriously? She felt like she was at the upper hand while speaking, but then he’d react like she was a little kid that he was trying to get a reaction out of.

“Why don’t you take his spot as Team Captain? I’m sure you could and to answer your question, I’m talking to TJ for your sake. I know how much of a jerk he is, and I thought I could convince him to lay off. While I’m at it I’ll have a chat with Cyrus.” Marty responded, throwing some things in the trashcan beside their bench.

He was doing this for her? Buffy wanted to comment on how she could handle things on her own, but he was doing this after she’d tried her hand at it. She had to remind herself that Marty was nothing like TJ and wasn’t doing this to spite her, but that he wanted to help her.

“Wait, why would you _have a chat_ with Cyrus?”

Marty laughs again, and Buffy couldn’t be mad at the sound of this laugh even if she were forced to. It wasn’t condescending and god she was feeling queasy again. She was starting to wonder if this was a normal feeling and figured she would ask Cyrus about it later – Andi always got nervous even with Jonah being her somewhat boyfriend. Buffy didn’t really know what they were, but she felt bad for Cyrus.

“I just want to talk about the whole crush thing, make sure he’s ok, you know? I know what it’s like to be crushed, so I don’t want him to make the same mistakes I did.”

Mistakes. Marty thought talking to her about his feelings was a mistake? While she thought that he made a mistake when he avoided her, instead of respecting her decision and carrying on as friends, she didn’t think he shouldn’t have tried – although she knew she would’ve said no. She just wasn’t looking for a relationship, and he needed to respect her answer, but she should consider his feelings, and how could she if he didn’t tell her how he felt?

“I want him to know that he should try to get his feelings out there because while it hurts at first, and while he might distance himself because of that pain, he’ll be happy that he didn’t keep his feelings bottled up inside of him. Because I might be able to help him not become too distant and upset, I might be able to help him not make all of my mistakes. Learning experience, you know?”

“Yeah.” she whispered while he walked away, a forced smile on his face. Buffy noticed he did that a lot – especially around her. He always tried to look happy for her, and when he’d let himself surrender to the pain she’d gotten mad.

Yeah, it wasn’t fair that he thought that he couldn’t hang out with her if they weren’t a couple, but that distance did her some good too. That distance taught her how hard it was to be without him, and for him it was too hard to be with her yet without her heart. Love? Love was selfish, and Buffy hated it. She still wouldn’t have wanted to say yes to being in a relationship, but could she tell him why? She felt like she should, and she often didn’t want to tell people these deeper secrets of her, so it quite frankly scared the hell out of her.

Like what if she bared her soul out to Marty and he laughed at her? What if another person she cared about started to get too busy for her? She couldn’t let her guard down. She just didn’t feel ready for this kind of thing, and at times she’d wondered if she was even cut out for being in a relationship, but one look at him and she knew that she felt it – she just wish she didn’t.

 

**“Hey** TJ,” Marty called, while walking into the gym. TJ stopped dribbling long enough to look at Marty, and then shot a basket, grabbed the ball, and finally turned to face Marty with the basketball tucked into his hip.

“Here to play ball? I thought you couldn’t handle rejection,” TJ laughed.

“Oh, ouch, I am so hurt.” Marty, in fact, was not hurt by what TJ said. He’d known TJ long enough to know how much of a jerk he was, and he was half glad he wasn’t on the team because that meant he didn’t have to deal with him, but he also really loved basketball and not being on the team stung – it didn’t mean he couldn’t play, but it felt like he was being told that he might as well not play. Still, being an emotional wreck over not getting into the basketball team. “I’m actually here to tell you that since Buffy’s too nice to say it; you being a jerk isn’t going to get you anywhere. If you’re dealing with issues, you don’t have to take them out on other people. Let Buffy play.”

“Or what?”

“There’s no or, TJ. Just stop being a jerk.”

“Yeah, whatever.” TJ grabbed his stuff and walked out. Marty wasn’t sure if TJ was leaving because of him, or just because he wanted to. Either way, it was nice to just have gotten that over with and not have to spend any more time with TJ. “Oh, and I don’t do things unless I benefit from them, so I thought I’d pass the advice to you – there’s no point in trying to win over someone you’ve already lost.”

 

**Q** uite a while had passed, Buffy hadn’t talked to Marty since that day he’d talked to TJ, and while it hadn’t made a direct impact on her, she did notice TJ being nice to Cyrus – for whatever reason.

Cyrus had also told Andi about his crush on Jonah – he hadn’t even bothered to pretend he had a crush on Marty, and luckily for all of them Andi had taken it quite well. But, Jonah would never stop being the root of many problems because everyone had to pretend that Cyrus liked Marty and now Andi potentially liked someone new, but Jonah wanted to get back together, and Buffy was still mulling over her feelings. Oh, and her mother coming back home – during the first game Marty hadn’t attended.

Now Buffy was heading over to Andi’s house to discuss the situation with Andi and Cyrus, and low-and-behold, whom does she see on the way there?

“Marty?”

“It’s been a while,” he said in greeting, and yeah, it sure had been.


End file.
